You’ll need
Chocolate mousse
1 cup cashews, soaked 4 hours
1/4 cup almond milk
3 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp cacao
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup (35g) cacao butter buttons
Cherry jam
1 heaping cup cherries, stems and stones removed
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp chia seeds
120g @locolovechocolate Nirvana Block
Method
1. Make cherry jam. Add the cherries and water to a saucepan and cook on medium heat for 3-5mins on until cherries soften and begin to release their juice. Add chia & cook a further 5 mins, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and set aside to cool.
2. Make mousse. Melt cacao butter in a heat proof bowl Bain Marie style*. Once liquid, remove from heat and set aside to cool. Add remaining mousse ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. With the blender running, stream in melted (and cooled- it should be warm, not hot) cacao butter and continue to blend until completely incorporated. Use the blender tamper if necessary.
3. Pour mousse batter between 12 mini muffin trays (preferably a silicone tray). Top with cherry jam then place in the freezer for 4+ hours.
4. Melt chocolate in a heat proof bowl, Bain Marie* style. Once melted, remove from heat. Remove the mousse cups from the freezer and their moulds. Live a small tray with baking paper. Dip each cup into the melted chocolate. Use 2 forks to do this, and allow excess chocolate to run off the dipped cup into the bowl. Place on lined tray then repeat with with all cups. Set in fridge for 1 hour, then store in an airtight container in the fridge (up to - week) or freezer (up to one month). Enjoy!
*Bain Marie method. This is the correct way to melt chocolate or cacao butter, and ensures you don’t ruin the chocolate! Add 2-3 cm water to a saucepan and bring to the boil. Set a heat prod bowl on the top of the saucepan. The bowl should be resting on the saucepan rim and NOT touch the water. Keep heat on the lowest setting, melting slowly. Once melted, turn off heat and remove bowl from saucepan, setting aside.
